Shishmaref Through Anthropology
By Chandler Sandusky
The various tribal nations. Including Shishmaraf Marino, Elizabeth. Fierce Climate, Sacred Ground (p. 47).
Shishmaref has a distinct culture that we can identify. The people of Shishmaref are descended from the Tapqagmiut people, a coastal people and marine mammal hunters. The Tapqagmiut were a people who lived a nomadic life style that could adapt to the changing weather. High mobillity was the strategy to survival of these people because they could follow there resources wether they were inland in summer out to sea in winter. This means flooding and erosion were not a threat to these people because they were not deeply entrenched with the land. Near Shishmaraf today is “Old Shishmaref,” one of the largest winter villages of the Tapqagmiut. Today people living in Shishmaref are deeply familiar with these old village sites which are linked to the locations families settled before settling on the island. The families even maintain the hunting rights for these areas. Today the people identify themselves as Kigiqtaamiut as a sign of community despite these familial hunting rights.
Local Shismaref Church(John D.Sutter,2017,Tragedy of a village built on ice, CNN, https://www.cnn.com/2017/03/29/us/sutter-shishmaref-esau-tragedy/index.html
However, colonialism changed this highly adaptive lifestyle. Schools, Churches and infrastructure rooted the once nomadic people to places like Shishmaref. These things have become apart of their community for the better or worse. Christianity for example has been mixed with old spiritual beliefs and the church is essential for the community. Schools are seen as the catalyst to some people residing on the island whether it was because of forced attendance or elders seeing its importance. However schools led to the loss of local language when students were forbidden from speaking Inupiat. However the infrastructure today is inadequate for the people. Infrastructure also changed the community by moving from traditional housing to framed housing. Today most if not all housing is framed however they are insufficent for living in. Most houses lack running water or sewers. However despite all these thing hunting is still an important part of their culture. The village and the island it resides on is a important part of the subsistence culture that defines the people who live there. It is a perfect location to access the sea mammals such as seals that residents hunt store and eat. If they are to move out of Shishmaref they want a location that supports this lifestyle. However they would still have to return to Shishmaref in the spring time and the worry among residence is that it’s going to be harder for them to subsist off the ocean since the ice is dangerous to travel upon.